Hundreds of Finns in special forces units

Three authorities supply rapid deployment units for difficult situations; new army troop under training at Utti base

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By Jukka Harju
     
      The Finnish army now has its own special forces unit, which has been trained for particularly difficult and dangerous situations.
      With the completion of training of the Defence Forces' Special Jaeger detachment, nearly all the Finnish authorities whose members are entitled to bear arms will have their own special ops forces.
      The training programme of the Special Jaegers at the Utti garrison and airfield near Kouvola began at the end of last year. Finland was one of the last European countries where the defence forces did not have their own special ops detachment on the lines of international special forces units, but now this anomaly has been removed.
     
The longest established of the trio of Finnish armed response teams is the Finnish Police's so-called Karhu (the Finnish word for "Bear") Unit, with a 30-year history that has not been without a few brushes with controversy.
      The special rapid deployment forces belonging to the Frontier Guard are perhaps less well-known to the general public, but conversely they are surprisingly large in number.
     
Already some several hundred individuals from the police, the FDF, and the Frontier Guard have tasks in special forces units.
      The work is either dedicated and full-time or is carried out alongside normal duties, as and when events require it.
      The different units have a good many features in common. In the first place, none of the groups are overly generous with information about their activities, training, or equipment, for fairly obvious reasons. In many cases those in command merely acknowledge that their training and firepower are on a par with those of international colleagues.
      Equally, the rank and file members of such units do not want their names made public, for "occupational safety reasons".
     
None of them can claim bragging rights about the size of their monthly salaries.
      Nonetheless, each group would have a great many more applicants than can be taken in. Selection procedures are rigorous. Tests are carried out annually, and the threshold for admission is set extremely high.
      All three groups also take pains to point out that no would-be Rambos need apply, but state that admission criteria put particular weight on such characteristics as stability, the capacity to work under extreme pressure, and teamwork skills.
     
If there are similarities, there are also many differences between the units. One of the clearest is that the Police and Frontier Guard teams are to a greater or lesser extent on constant readiness, whilst the FDF's Special Jaegers are brought into action only in such exceptional circumstances that require the involvement of the army.
      At the operational level, the differences are enormous: a police officer in the Karhu unit could find himself suited up in earnest and in potentially dangerous or life-threatening situations several times a year, while the Special Jaegers only take part in training manoeuvres.
      In the case of Police and Frontier Guard units, one key feature of the operative model is that nobody is "only" deployed on special forces duty. This allows for the maintenance of a sense of perspective and proportion about the work, and safeguards against members going "over the top".
     
The members are for the most part ordinary police officers or frontier guards who perform the usual tasks associated with their work, but when push comes to shove their roles change abruptly.
      The Karhu team are on 24-hour alert and can be deployed swiftly, as they are at work on normal police patrols constantly.
      The Karhu swat team and the Frontier Guard equivalent will both be spotlighted this summer, because the IAAF World Championships in Athletics at the Olympic Stadium in August will bring to the capital region the tightest security arrangements ever seen in this country.
     
In a sense, the games will see the closing of a 30-year circle, since the Karhu unit was set up originally for the 1975 CSCE summit meeting in Helsinki's Finlandia Hall, attended by heads of state and government from the entire OSCE region.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 22.5.2005

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 FACTFILE: Who are they and what do they do?

JUKKA HARJU / Helsingin Sanomat
jukka.harju@hs.fi